We’re now into our second year of producing our own ‘Kindling Trust’ crops, grown at our FarmStart incubator site. So we’ve teamed up with MVP to take our goods to market, on the first Sunday of the month in Heaton Moor.
On Sunday 7th September, The Kindling Trust and Manchester Veg People joined up with their first retail offer at Stockport’s Heaton Moor market. It was a beautiful sunny day and the local community welcomed the new addition of an organic primary producer to the market.
Kindling’s FarmStart is the UK’s first and only incubator farm – creating a supported route into organic farming for brand new growers. Lindsay describes why she got involved and how it’s working out for her.
Over the next 3 years The Kindling Trust aims to establish a large farm (and much more) near Manchester using pioneering sustainable farming techniques and supporting a range of innovative enterprises and campaigns for social and environmental justice.
On 21st August fourteen enthusiastic members of Manchester-based accountants Slade and Cooper joined us to work alongside FarmStart's new organic growers, in helping to increase sustainable food production for Greater Manchester.
The Land Army regularly hosts Team Challenge Days for businesses and organisations who are looking for a way to give something back to their local community.
If you've ever wondered about a career in farming, don't sit and ponder any longer (or even take it from us), come along for an evening with an experienced local organic grower, and a participant in the FarmStart programme, to find out if growing veg is a career you would be interested in.
This Autumn we will be running our fifth Commercial Organic Horticulture course - offering people an amazing training opportunity to learn how to set up an organic food growing business from the growers themselves.
Last term Oldham Council was awarded a prestigious ‘Gold Food for Life Catering Mark’ thanks to the high quality meals being served in schools across the borough.
The Education Catering Team is only the third local authority in the country to achieve this honour – and the first in the North-West.
Last week the Land Army visited Growing with Grace in Clapham, near Lancaster. The 120 mile round trip was a bit longer than our usual Land Army missions to farms in Greater Manchester - and meant a very early start! - but this was a great opportunity for our volunteers to visit a long standing community co-operative farm dedicated to producing sustainably grown food.
A sunny stroll through giant maize fields with a fantastic backdrop of Manchester shimmering in the distance took us to Kindling’s Farmstart site, the first stop on the walk, where the 25 visitors were impressed with the wide range of organic veg being grown by the brand new growers on the scheme.
Stockport entered a new era on Friday 27th June with nearly eighty people joining Stockport Council, Stockport Homes and The Kindling Trust for the formal launch of a major initiative to make the borough one of Britain's first sustainable food cities.